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DEDICATION 
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BOSTON  AEDICAL-  LIBRARY 

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DEDICATION 


NEW  BUILDING 


Bo6ton  /Iftcbical  Xtbrarv 


8  The  Fenway 

Saturday,  January  12,  igoi 


ORDER  OF  EXERCISES 

ADDRESSES    BY    THE    PRESIDENT,    DR.    DAVID    W.    CHEEVER 
AND    THE    LIBRARIAN,    DR.    JAMES    R.    CHADWICK 


REMARKS    BY 


DR.  FRANCIS  W.  DRAPER,  President  of 
THE  Massachusetts  Medical  Society. 

DR.  WILLIAM  OSLER,  Professor  of  Med- 
icine, Johns  Hopkins  University,  Bal- 
timore, Md. 

DR.  JOHN  S.  BILLINGS,  Librarian  of  the 
New  York  Public  Library. 


DR.  HORATIO  C.  WOOD,  Professor  of 
Therapeutics  and  Clinical  Professor 
OF  Nervous  Diseases,  University  of 
Pennsylvania. 

DR.  HENRY  P.  WALCOTT,  Acting  Presi- 
dent OF  Harvard  University,  Cam- 
bridge. 


BOSTON 

PRINTED   BY   S.  J.  PARKHILL   &   CO. 

1901 


OFFICERS 


Q^W       Jm       Jm 


DAVID  W.  CHEEVER,  M.D. 
FREDERICK  I.  KNIGHT,  M.D.     . 
OLIVER  F.  WADSWORTH,  M.D. 
JAMES  B.  AVER,  M.D.     . 
JAMES  R.  CHADWICKt  M.D 
EDWIN  H.  BRIGHAM,  M.D. 
MRS.  E.  J.  COLLINS 


President 
VicesPresident 
Secretary 
Treasurer 
Librarian 
Assistant  Librarian 
*  Cataloguer 


MALCOLM  STORER,  M.D.       Curator  of  the  Storer  Collection  of  Medical  Medals 


EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE 


DAVID  W.  CHEEVER,  M.D. 
OLIVER  F.  WADSWORTH,  M.D. 
WALTER  L.  BURRAGE,  M.D. 
JOHN  W.  FARLOW,  M.D. 
JOHN  HOMANS,  2d,  M.D. 
MORTON  PRINCE,  M.D. 
CHARLES  P.  PUTNAM,  M.D. 


z 


ADDRESSES. 


ADDRESS   BY   DAVID   W.   CHEEVER,  M.D.,   LL.D., 

President  of  the  Boston  Medical  Library. 
IVrEMBEES  OF    THE  BoSTON  MeDICAL  LiBRARY,  OuR  InVITED     GuESTS, 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen  :  —  By  the  liberality  of  many  citizens,  women  as 
well  as  men,  whose  gifts  we  gratefully  acknowledge,  and  by  the  free  offerings 
of  our  ^professional  brethren,  we  have  erected  this  commodious  and  safe  deposi- 
tory for  our  medical  library.  It  is  with  a  peculiar  feeling  of  thankfulness  that 
I  officially  welcome  here  the  physicians  of  Boston  and  of  New  England.  The 
object  for  which  we  have  striven  is  so  vital  to  our  welfare  that  a  certain 
solemnity  is  appropriately  mingled  with  our  gratitude.  Over  and  over  again, 
in  these  later  years  of  financial  prosperity,  have  we  seen  vast  schemes  of 
benevolence,  of  religion  and  of  education  begun  and  finished  promptly  by  the 
munificence  of  a  single  wealthy  citizen.  Such  has  not  been  our  good  fortune. 
We  have  received  but  one  large  gift  and  that  from  a  lady  who  wishes  to 
remain  unknown. 

"  Inter  tedia  et  labores,'''  literally,  have  the  doctors  toiled  to  make  this 
library  and  to  give  it  a  safe  and  suitable  building.  Our  librarian  will  detail 
to  you,  as  he  alone  can  do,  the  long  years  of  effort  by  which  he  has  raised 
this  to  the  fourth  place  among  the  medical  libraries  of  this  country. 

It  is  my  simple  duty  to  welcome  you  here,  and  to  recount,  briefly,  the 
importance  and  the  advantages  of  our  work. 

A  medical  library  is  peculiar  in  that  it  must  also  be  a  contemporary  and 
a  periodical  library.  The  present  is  even  more  valuable  to  it  than  the  past, 
although  the  records  of  the  past  are  inestimable.  It  has  been  well  said  that 
the  burning  of  the  library  of  Alexandria  set  civilization  back  through  all  the 


4  ADDRESS. 

centuries  of  the  Middle  Ages.  So,  were  all  records  of  medicine  blotted  out, 
the  next  generation  of  doctors  would  begin  as  children  over  again.  What 
has  been  discovered  has  been  recorded,  and  were  that  lost,  humanity  would 
be  reduced  to  the  rough  medical  practice  of  the  savage.  It  is  impossible  to 
set  a  money  value  on  medical  science,  and  without  the  records  of  science, 
there  would  be  no  medical  art.  Were  anatomy,  physiology  and  pathology 
lost,  we  should  be  groping  in  the  first  footsteps  of  ignorance.  Were  the 
history  of  all  diseases,  recorded  in  our  books,  destroyed,  we  should  be  only 
children  as  observers.  But  to  the  younger  doctors  who  listen  to  me  it  will 
appear  that  the  present  is  all  important.  And  if  we  were  suddenly  deprived 
of  the  knowledge  acquired  in  the  last  fifty,  twenty,  or  even  ten  years,  what  a 
change  would  come  over  medicine!  Anesthesia,  antisepsis  and  bacteriology 
are  now  the  paramount  factors  of  all  our  progi'ess.  And  the  peculiarity 
of  this  species  of  knowledge  is  that  it  is  ephemei'al  ;  it  lives  but  a  day  ;  it  is 
not  lost,  but  its  seeds  germinate  in  new  discoveries  the  next  day.  What  we 
know  today  may  be  obsolete  tomorrow,  simply  because  it  is  subject  to  daily 
investigation  and  daily  modification. 

This  form  of  knowledge  requires  an  ephemeral  literature  to  record  it. 
The  monthly,  the  weekly  periodicals  supply  this  knowledge.  Hence  the  im- 
portance of  a  periodical  library  in  medicine.  More  than  five  hundred  such 
publications  are  taken  here  ;  read  here  ;  preserved  liere  in  files.  This,  then, 
constitutes  a  most  valuable  part  of  our  library. 

To  allow  the  busy  doctor  and  the  student  an  opportunity  to  use  this 
knowledge,  it  must  be  rendered  accessible  in  commodious  and  quiet  rooms, 
for  reading,  writing,  excerpting.  In  our  fine  halls  we  can  now  offer  the 
wisdom  of  the  older  authors,  and  the  discoveries  of  almost  every  hospital  and 
clinic  and  school  in  the  world.  Special  subjects  can  be  searched  and  ex- 
hausted ;  and  the  hurried  doctor  can  drop  in  for  half  an  hour  and  find  the 
facts  he  is  in  search  of,  speedily  and  surely. 

This  is  not  all  our  function.  A  meeting  house  for  physicians  is  also 
here  provided  ;  a  medical  centre,  where  professional  intercourse  will  be  aided 
by  social  features  also. 

I  believe  that  the  future  influence  of  this  Boston  Medical   Library  on 


DAVID   W.   CHEEVEE.  O 

the  doctors  of  New  England  will  be  beyond  computation,  in  advancing  science, 
softening  prejudices  and  modifying  opinions. 

In  1874  six  physicians  met  in  the  office  of  the  late  Dr.  Henry  I.  Bow- 
ditch,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  this  library  association.  Three  of  these 
gentlemen  still  serve  us :  Dr.  F.  I.  Knight,  as  vice  president ;  Dr.  O.  F. 
Wadsworth,  as  clerk  ;  Dr.  James  R.  Chadwick,  as  librarian.  We  may  fittingly 
recall,  also,  that  our  assistant  librarian,  Dr.  Edwin  H.  Brigham,  is  still  in 
charge ;  having  faithfully  filled  that  office  since  1875.  Mrs.  Collins,  our  cata- 
loguer, has  served  jjs  well  for  twenty-two  years.  Such  permanence  and  relia- 
bility have  been  great  helps  in  our  progress.  In  1877  an  act  of  incorporation 
was  obtained.  Twelve  of  the  fourteen  original  incorporators  survive.  We 
have  lost  three  presidents  by  death :  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  presiding 
from  1875  to  1888;  Dr.  Hodges,  presiding  from  1888  to  1890;  Dr.  Minot, 
presiding  from  1890  to  1896. 

A  quarter  of  a  century  has  elapsed,  and  we  have  moved  from  Hamilton 
Place  to  Boylston  Place,  and  thence,  here.  In  this  chaste  and  appropriate 
edifice  we  now  are  domiciled.  That  it  is  so  well  constructed  we  owe  to  the 
good  taste  of  the  architects,  Messrs.  Shaw  &  Hunnewell,  aided  by  the  sug- 
gestions and  the  oversight  of  our  building  committee,  Drs.  J.  Collins  Warren, 
J.  R.  Chadwick,  Farrar  C.  Cobb.  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact  that  we  have  com- 
pleted our  building  for  less  than  the  estimated  cost.  This  is  unusual ;  and 
we  owe  it  largely  to  the  prudent  management  and  practical  knowledge  of  Dr. 
Farrar  Cobb,  whose  experience  in  building  a  large  hospital  has  well  served 
him  and  us. 

The  young  men  in  our  ranks  have  pushed  us  on,  and  furnished  that 
spur  of  enthusiasm  which  conservative  age  sometimes  lacks.  We  owe  also 
much  of  our  financial  success  to  the  tact  of  our  committee  to  solicit  sub- 
scriptions, of  which  Dr.  John  Homans,  2d,  is  chairman.  I  consider  that  we 
have  made  a  financial  success,  because  we  have  collected  by  subscription 
about  $73,000. 

We  have  paid  out  $125,000;  and  $15,000  will  complete  our  building 
and  furnishing;  thus  bringing  the  total  cost  up  to  rising  $140,000.  Sixty- 
seven  thousand  dollars  are  still  due  ;  but   we   have  $25,000  to  meet  this,  in 


6  ADDRESS. 

laud  we  owu,  unsold,  leaviug  a  balauce  of  debt  of  $42,000.  We  have  mort- 
gaged this  library,  building  and  land,  for  $50,000. 

Our  younger  members  have  generously  guaranteed  the  interest  on 
$25,000  for  five  years.  And  this  leaves  us  a  yearly  burden  of  interest  of 
about  $1,000.  We  are  not  so  badly  off  then.  Fifty  thousand  dollars  would 
clear  us  of  debt. 

But  looking  forward  to  the  future  we  need  an  endowment  to  buy  books. 
Many  physicians  have  given  us  their  libraries  ;  others  will  do  so  as  time  goes 
on.  But  we  need  modern  contemporary  books.  We  ought  to  have  on  our 
shelves  every  modern  treatise  and  textbook,  in  English,  French  or  German, 
as  soon  as  published ;  medical  students  and  doctors  alike  need  this.  We 
need  a  fund  with  a  yearly  income  to  enable  us  to  receive  students  freely ;  to 
give  them  a  room  to  themselves.  We  want  students  to  come  here  as  well  as 
doctors,  and  we  want  to  be  able  to  give  them  good  facilities  for  study. 

Our  hall  for  business  meetings  has  been  beautifully  fitted  up  in  memory 
of  Dr.  Richard  Sprague,  by  his  mother  and  by  the  Hon.  C.  F.  Sprague. 
Mrs.  Fifield,  the  widow  of  our  late  genial  associate,  has  furnished  a  room, 
as  a  memorial.  Holmes  Hall  speaks  for  itself.  I  need  not  describe  its  excel- 
lence. Would  that  some  one  might  decorate  and  furnish  the  hall  we  occupy 
this  evening.  From  the  walls  of  Holmes  Hall,  from  other  rooms,  look  down 
upon  us  the  portraits  of  many  of  our  medical  forefathers  and  teachers :  The 
Warrens,  Bigelows,  Jacksons,  Homans,  Shattucks,  Wymans,  Bowditchs, 
Cabots,  Putnams,  Storer,  Ellis,  Buckingham,  Holmes !  How  can  I  cease  the 
enumeration  ?  These  were  scholarly  doctors.  We  need  to  continue  this 
patrician  Geiis.  Science  enlightens,  but  does  not  wholly  satisfy  ;  the  humani- 
ties in  education  soften  manners,  nor  allow  them  to  be  harsh. 

The  moral  effect  produced  on  the  patient  and  the  community  by  the 
learned,  as  well  as  gentlemanly,  physician,  is  great  and  wholesome.  Let  the 
doctor  cultivate  books,  and  let  the  influence  of  this  library  help  him  to  do  so. 

It  is  now  my  privilege  to  introduce  to  you  our  librarian.  If  any  one 
man  were  named  who  had  collected  and  created  our  library,  it  is  he.  He  is  a 
bibliophile,  who  travels  over  Europe  with  a  list  of  missing  numbers  always 
in  his  pockets.     Persistent  as  the  bee,  he  never  comes  home  without  honey. 


JAMES    E.    CHADWICK. 


ADDRESS   BY  JAMES   R.   CHADWICK,   M.D., 

Librarian  of  the  Boston  Medical  Library. 

"  Horce  periunt  et  imputantur."  "  The  hours  perish  and  you  must 
account  for  them."  These  words,  taken  from  the  sun-dial  at  Oxford  Uni- 
versity, seem  to  express  the  sentiment  with  wliich  you  give  me  your  attention 
today,  when  I  speak  to  you,  fellow-associates,  in  the  name  of  the  governing 
body  of  this  library.  Hours  have  lengthened  into  days,  days  into  years,  and 
years  have  spanned  the  quarter  of  a  century,  since  you  laid  upon  our  shoulders 
the  burden  of  creating  and  building  up  a  library  to  meet  the  wants  of  our 
profession  in  this  community.  Most  of  us  have  become  silverites  in  the 
process  of  time  and  regard  the  ratio  of  sixteen  to  one  as  very  moderate.  A 
few  are  in  position  to  follow  the  example  of  a  friend  of  mine,  who  has 
discarded  a  brush  and  comb  from  his  toilet  set  and  claims  that  all  he  needs  to 
do  in  the  morning  is  to  dust  off  the  top  of  his  head.  A  few,  happily  but 
few,  of  our  early  collaborators  have  fallen  by  the  wayside  and  are  no  longer 
with  us  today  to  enjoy  the  full  consummation  of  their  efforts.  I  cannot 
mention  them  all;  you  know  them  —  the  impetuous,  high-minded  Bowditch, 
the  beneficent  Shattuck,  the  quiet,  persistent  Ellis,  the  sturdy  Buckingham, 
the  erudite  Fifield,  that  dazzling  genius  Bigelow,  and  among  the  younger  men, 
the  scholarly  Curtis,  the  wise  Hooper,  the  wholehearted,  witty  Wiggles- 
worth. 

Last  to  be  mentioned,  but  first  in  all  your  minds  today,  is  he  who  lent  us 
the  prestige  of  his  name  at  the  inception  of  our  undertaking  —  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes,  our  first  president,  litterateur,  poet,  wit,  and  for  thirty-five  years 
professor  of  anatomy  at  the  Harvard  Medical  School.  Our  debt  to  him  can 
never  be  paid,  but  we  intend  to  keep  it  alive  in  our  memory  by  dedicating 
to  him  our  principal  reafling  room,  to  be  known  through  all  time  as  Holmes 
Hall.     His  bust  in  bronze,  a  replica  of  that  made  by  R.  E.  Brooks  for  the 


8  ADDRESS. 

Boston  Public  Library,  looks  down  upon  us  from  over  the  mautlepiece  at 
one  end,  his  portrait  by  Billings  at  the  other.  We  have  many  mementoes 
of  him  scattered  through  the  hall ;  the  latch  of  the  house  in  which  he  was 
born ;  the  earliest  known  portrait  of  him,  a  daguerrotype  taken  by  Whipple 
&  Ilawes  about  1845  ;  his  fist  cast  in  bronze  for  me  by  the  sculptor,  T.  H. 
Bartlett,  with  regard  to  which  the  latter  tells  an  amusing  and  characteristic 
story.  When  Dr.  Holmes  was  asked  if  he  would  hold  a  pen  while  the  mould 
was  being  made,  he  said,  "  No,"  doubling  up  his  fist  like  a  prizefighter's. 
"  Take  it  that  way,  which  does  not  show  the  wrinkles  of  old  age,  does  it?" 
His  medical  library  of  nearly  1,000  volumes,  including  many  superb  tomes 
of  anatomical  plates  in  which  he  took  the  keenest  delight,  will  there  find  a 
suitable  abiding  place  in  accordance  with  his  dying  bequest  in  1894. 
In  his  poem  "  To  the  Portrait  of  a  Lady  "  he  says : 

"  I  love  sweet  features ;  I  will  own 

That  I  should  like  myself 
To  see  my  portrait  on  a  wall, 

Or  bust  upon  a  shelf ; 
But  Nature  sometimes  makes  us  up 

Of  such  sad  odds  and  ends, 
It  really  might  be  quite  as  well 

Hushed  up  among  one's  friends." 

His  wish  is  gratified  by  us,  his  friends. 

Happily,  some  of  us,  men  of  '75,  survive  to  enjoy  the  pleasure  of  this 
moment,  when  we  welcome  you  to  the  regal  abode  which  your  bounty  has 
provided,  in  recognition  of  the  library  which  our  labors  have  brought  to- 
gether. 

"  The  longest  life  "  is  said  to  be  "  a  parcel  of  moments,"  so  the  largest 
library  is  but  an  aggregation  of  individual  books.  Exclusive  of  duplicates 
for  home  circulation,  we  have  today  upon  our  shelves  about  33,000  volumes 
and  30,000  pamjihlets ;  yet  these  figures  give  but  a  partial  idea  of  our 
resources.  To  make  this  more  clear  I  must  bring  to  your  minds  the  change 
which  time  has  brought  about  in  the  literature  of  medicine.  Without  dwelling 
upon  the  ponderous  tomes  in  which  was  buried  the  medical  lore  of  the  early 


JAMES   R.   CHADWICK.  9 

centuries  after  the  discovery  of  printing,  which  your  orator  and  president  of 
twenty-two  years  ago  dihited  upon  so  learnedly  and  so  wittily,  I  would  ask 
you  to  come  with  me  for  a  moment  into  the  market  place  of  Venice  in  the 
early  part  of  the  sixteenth  century  to  scan  a  document,  written  in  a  legible 
hand,  posted  there  and  elsewhere  in  the  city,  for  the  perusal  of  those  merchants 
who  chose  to  pay  a  gazzetta  for  the  privilege.  You  would  find  that  it  gave 
the  news  brought  back  to  Venice  by  some  one  of  its  adventurous  captains, 
who  had  strayed  beyond  the  limits  defined  in  his  rude  chart,  and  made 
another  land  discovdT-y  in  the  far  West  or  the  far  South.  "  The  arrival  of 
the  ship  in  the  Adriatic,  the  contents  of  its  cargo,  the  price  of  commodities 
abroad,  together  with  some  account  of  a  newly  discovered  island,  its  wonder- 
ful people  and  marvellous  products  would  form  the  staple  of  the  news-sheet  of 
the  hour." 

When  in  1536  the  Venetian  possessions  in  the  East  were  attacked  by  the 
Turks,  the  first  regular  monthly  journal  was  established  by  the  government 
to  supply  news  from  the  fieet,  and  men  were  paid  to  read  the  particulars  at 
the  principal  points  of  the  city,  but  no  sheets  were  issued  except  such  as  were 
sanctioned  by  the  Doge  and  his  council.  The  officials  were  so  jealous  of  the 
printing  press,  however,  that  it  was  nearly  fifty  years  after  this  time  that  the 
first  printed  newspaper  was  published  in  the  city  and  dispersed  every  month 
into  most  parts  of  Christendom. 

It  is  probably  true,  as  claimed  by  the  Germans,  that  their  nation  was  the 
first  to  actually  publish  a  printed  newspaper,  a  certain  Relation,  which 
appeared  in  Strassburg,  fifty-two  numbers  of  which,  dating  from  the  year 
1609,  are  preserved  in  Heidelberg.  The  Frankfurt  Journal  was  not  published 
until  1615  ;  the  first  English  paper,  the  Weekly  News,  in  1623  ;  the  first 
French  journal  in  1630. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  the  now  universal  Gazette  is  seen  to  have  come  from 
the  small  coin  originally  paid  for  the  perusal  of  its  manuscript  predecessor. 
From  this  modest  beginning  has  developed  the  enormous  mass  of  periodicals 
which  characterize  the  literature  of  medicine  and  most  other  branches  of 
science  at  the  present  day.  In  medicine  the  greater  part  of  this  change  has 
taken  place  in  the  nineteenth  century. 


10  ADDRESS. 

AVhen  six  of  us  young  men  met  on  December  21,  1874,  to  discuss  the 
possibility  of  founding  this  library,  and  when  we  actually  did  found  it  on 
August  20,  1875,  we  were  fully  cognizant  of  this  change  that  was  rapidly 
taking  place  in  the  character  of  medical  literature ;  we  knew  that  the  era  of 
theories  and  systems  in  medicine  was  being  pulverized  into  nothingness  by 
the  accumulation  of  crude  facts  and  that  these  facts  were  to  be  found  chiefly 
in  periodical  literature.  Periodicals  were  then  increasing  at  so  rapid  a  rate 
that  few  private  individuals  could  afford  to  obtain,  or  even  give,  them  shelf 
room. 

We  did  not  at  that  time  foresee  that  this  difliculty  was  to  be  increased 
a  hundredfold,  not  merely  by  the  multiplication  of  individual  periodicals  — 
great  as  that  might  become  —  but  by  the  publication  of  a  colossal  index  to 
all  previous  medical  literature,  including  every  article  in  every  one  of  the 
numerous  periodicals. 

In  1879  the  library  of  the  Surgeon-General's  Office  in  Washington,  under 
the  charge  of  an  army  surgeon,  Dr.  John  S.  Billings  (whose  presence  here 
today  is  a  fresh  manifestation  of  his  warm  interest  in  our  library),  began  the 
publication  of  an  index  catalogue  of  its  collections,  which  comprised  practically 
all  medical  literature  up  to  that  date.  The  first  series  of  sixteen  volumes, 
quarto,  was  completed  in  1895 ;  the  new  series,  comprising  accessions  since 
the  publication  of  the  first  series,  has  already  reached  the  fifth  volume. 

Its  value  to  medical  scholars  is  inestimable,  superseding,  as  it  does,  all 
the  time-wasting  labor  that  used  to  be  expended  in  bibliographical  research. 
By  its  aid  we  obtain  a  reference  to  every  rare  case  that  has  been  recorded 
since  printing  was  discovered  in  A.  D.  1450.  But  by  indexing  the  articles 
and  reports  of  cases  in  every  periodical,  past  and  present,  obscure  and  famous, 
this  catalogue  has  immensely  extended  the  scope  of  medical  research  and 
created  a  demand  for  an  array  of  books,  and  especially  of  periodicals,  that 
is  simply  appalling. 

I  have  dwelt  at  some  length  on  this  peculiarity  of  the  medical  literature 
of  the  present  day  that  you  might  understand  why  it  has  been  the  constant 
aim  of  your  librarian,  during  the  past  twenty-five  years,  to  complete  the  files 
of  all  the  important  periodicals.     His  efforts  have  been  attended  with  such 


JAMES   E.    CHADWICK.  11 

success,  despite  the  small  funds  at  his  disposal,  that  more  than  half  of  the 
volumes  upon  our  shelves  belong  to  that  category.  We  are  able  to  supply 
about  seven-eighths  of  all  the  references  to  current  literature  demanded  by 
our  readers,  even  though  they  avail  themselves  of  this  great  universal 
index. 

It  may  pertinently  be  asked  how  our  association,  with  practically  no 
invested  funds,  has  been  able  to  achieve  such  results  in  the  accumulation  of 
books ;  for  the  table  of.  curves  suspended  above  me  shows  that  in  twenty-five 
years  we  have  been  able  to  outstrip  many  of  the  libraries  which  antedate 
us  by  many  years  in  their  foundation.  Our  library  is  already  the  fourth  in 
size  in  the  country,  being  exceeded  only  by  that  of  the  Surgeon-General's 
Office  in  "Washington,  that  of  the  College  of  Physicians  in  Philadelphia, 
and  that  of  the  Academy  of  Medicine  in  New  York. 

I  will  tell  you  briefly.  In  the  first  place,  we  were  fortunate  enough  to 
secure,  at  the  onset,  the  custodianship  of  the  libraries  of  all  the  societies 
pre-existing  in  the  city.  In  the  second  place,  most  liberal  contributions  were 
made  to  us  by  many  private  individuals.  In  the  third  place,  the  complete- 
ness of  our  files  of  journals  and  transactions  I  attribute  largely  to  the  existence 
of  the  volume  which  I  hold  in  my  hand,  my  "  want  book,"  wherein,  upon 
the  left-hand  page,  is  entered  every  periodical  of  which  we  have  any  part, 
while  on  the  opposite  page  is  entered  every  volume  or  number  needed  to  com- 
plete the  file  of  that  particular  journal.  By  invariably  carrying  this  with  me 
upon  my  travels  in  this  country  and  Europe,  I  have  been  able  gradually,  at 
a  trifling  expenditure  of  money,  to  complete  the  files  of  all  the  leading  peri- 
odicals of  the  world.  I  submit  this  to  your  special  attention  if  you  wish  to 
know  how  to  Iniild  up  a  medical  library  with  practically  no  funds  for  the 
purchase  of  books. 

So  much  for  our  accomplishment  in  the  chief  purpose  for  which  we  were 
brought  into  being.  In  some  other  ways  we  are  making  ourselves  of  use 
to  the  profession  and  to  the  community.  For  over  twenty  years  we  have 
been  conducting  a  Directory  for  Nurses,  which  has  been  of  immense  value  in 
putting,  at  the  shortest  possible  notice,  the  nurses  of  the  State  into  communi- 
cation with  the  physicians  and  their  patients  who  wish  to  secure  their  ser- 


12  ADTMIKSS. 

vices.  Incidentally  we  have  been  able  to  raise  the  standard  of  nursing  by 
putting  a  premium  upon  competence  and  training. 

We  have  added  to  the  amenities  of  professional  life  by  supplying  suitable 
halls  for  the  meetings  of  the  various  medical  societies  and  by  hanging  upon 
our  walls  the  portraits  of  past  worthies. 

Within  the  past  month  we  have  received  from  Dr.  Horatio  R.  Storer, 
of  Newport,  R.  I.,  formerly  of  Boston,  the  gift  of  a  most  remarkable  col- 
lection of  medical  medals,  numbering  2,300  pieces.  Only  two  other  collec- 
tions exist  in  the  world  at  all  commensurate  with  this,  that  of  Dr.  Joseph 
Brettaur,  of  Trieste,  and  that  belonging  to  the  library  of  the  Surgeon- 
General's  Office  in  Washington.  Of  the  six  other  great  collections  that 
have  been  formed  during  the  past  two  centuries,  all  have  been  scattered 
except  that  of  Rueppelli,  which  was  bequeathed  to  the  Sankenbergische 
Gesellschaft  of  Frankfort.  Considered  either  from  its  historic  interest,  its 
esthetic  merits,  or  its  pecuniary  value,  I  consider  this  gift  as  the  most  note- 
worthy that  this  association  has  thus  far  received.  It  is  to  be  known  as  the 
Storer  Collection  of  Medical  Medals  in  memory  of  Dr.  D.  Humphreys 
Storer,  the  father  of  the  donor,  and  is  to  be  in  charge  of  a  son  of  the  donor, 
Dr.  Malcolm  Storer,  an  accomplished  numismatist. 

We  have  a  collection  of  many  thousand  aiitograph  letters  of  past  and 
present  medical  writers  and  practitioners,  only  awaiting  the  appearance  of  a 
custodian  with  time  and  enthusiasm  to  classify  them  and  thus  make  them 
available  to  students  of  history  at  its  original  sources. 

To  recapitulate  briefly :  We  started  in,  twenty-five  years  ago,  with  the 
one  purpose  of  supplying  the  needs  of  the  medical  profession  in  the  way  of 
literature  properly  catalogued  and  otherwise  made  available  to  all  students. 
The  gift  of  this  spacious  building  from  the  profession  of  this  city  is  the  best 
evidence  that  we  have  achieved  our  pui'pose.  Shall  we  rest  contented  with 
the  laurels  which  we  have  won  ?  I  venture  to  hope  not.  I  think  that  we 
acted  wisely  in  limiting  the  expenditure  of  our  energies  and  of  our  money 
to  the  one  purpose  of  building  up  a  library,  so  long  as  that  was  the  one 
thing  most  needed  in  the  city.  Now  that  we  have  secured  the  library  and  the 
best  equipped  building  in  the  country  in  which  to  store  it,  we  may  properly 


JAMES    E.    CHAD  WICK.  13 

consider  whether  the  time  has  not  come  to  enlarge  the  scope  of  our  functions 
by  assuming  the  role  of  a  society  in  addition  to  that  of  a  library. 

A  rich  merchant  of  Athens  gave  the  use  of  his  house  and  gardens 
on  the  outskirts  of  that  city  to  several  philosophic  friends  for  the  site  of  their 
reunions.  There  Plato  instructed  his  numerous  disciples.  This  place  was 
called  "  Academy  "  from  the  name  of  the  owner,  Academus.  Cicero  gave  the 
same  name  to  his  country  place  near  the  lake  of  Avernus  and  devoted  it  to 
the  same  purpose.  Now  that  we  have  a  similar  spacious  domicile,  surrounded 
by  gardens,  which  we  owe  to  the  munificence  of  the  city,  I  would  propose 
that  we  follow  the  example  of  our  remote  ancestors  and  invite  our  philosophic 
brethren  to  hold  their  reunions  in  our  halls,  not  as  guests  merely,  but  as 
integral  parts  of  our  association,  and  that  we  assume  the  name  as  well  as 
the  obligations  of  an  academy. 

It  is  not  merely  on  account  of  the  archeological  parallel,  over  which  my 
fancy  thus  plays,  that  I  make  this  proposition  to  extend  so  radically  the 
sphere  of  our  activity.  I  have  watched  for  many  years  the  careers  of  similar 
institutions  in  other  cities  and  have  come  to  believe  that  the  conjunction  of 
the  double  attributes  of  a  library  and  a  society  much  more  than  doubles 
the  usefulness  of  the  institution.  The  authority  and  prestige  enjoyed  in  their 
respective  cities  by  the  Academy  of  Medicine  in  New  York,  and  the  College 
of  Physicians  in  Philadelphia,  have  no  analogue  in  Boston.  I  remember 
being  greatly  impressed  with  this  lack  of  an  authoritative  body  of  medical 
men  in  our  midst  when  I  was  reading  many  years  ago  of  the  spread  of  a 
yellow-fever  epidemic.  The  question  of  a  quarantine  against  it  was  under 
discussion  in  Philadelphia  by  the  State  and  city  authorities,  who  referred  the 
whole  subject  to  the  College  of  Pliysicians,  which  appointed  from  its  numbers 
a  committee  of  experts  whose  report  was  accepted  by  the  government  as  final 
and  its  recommendations  carried  out.  I  could  not  help  thinking  at  the  time 
that  had  our  State  and  City  Boards  of  Health,  in  which  we  take  justifiable 
pride,  needed  guidance,  or  even  the  support  of  popular  opinion,  in  such  an 
emergency,  they  would  not  have  known  to  what  body  of  medical  men  they 
could  appeal  with  the  assurance  that  the  public  would  recognize  that  body 
as  authoritative.     Apart  from  this  important  rule,  which  we  have  a  chance 


14  ADDRESS. 

to  fill,  our  new  building  will  enable  us  to  develop  the  social  side  of  the  physi- 
cian's life.  We  may  become  to  a  fuller  extent  than  heretofore  the  centre  of 
all  activity  among  the  medical  men  of  the  State. 

But  this  subject  requires  more  study  and  deeper  consideration  than  it 
can  receive  on  such  an  occasion  as  this,  and  it  needs  moreover  the  enthusiasm 
of  youth  to  bring  it  to  a  happy  issue.  It  is  time  that  we,  men  of  '75,  stepped 
down  from  our  official  positions  and  laid  upon  more  stalwart  shoulders  the 
burden  of  accomplishing  the  latter  part  of  our  dream. 

"  And  ye  who  fill  the  places  we  once  filled, 
And  follow  in  the  furrows  we  once  tilled, 
Young  men  whose  generous  hearts  are  beating  high, 
We  who  are  old  and  are  about  to  die, 
Salute  you ;  hail  you ;  take  your  hands  in  ours. 
And  crown  you  with  our  welcome  as  with  flowers! 

"  How  beautiful  is  youth!  how  bright  it  gleams 
With  illusions,  aspirations,  dreams! 
Book  of  Beginnings,  story  without  end. 
Each  maid  a  heroine,  and  each  man  a  friend ! 
Aladdin's  Lamp  and  Fortunatus'  Purse, 
That  holds  the  treasures  of  the  Universe ! 
All  possibilities  are  in  its  hands, 
No  danger  daunts  it,  and  no  foe  withstands; 
In  its  sublime  audacity  of  faith, 
'  Be  thou  removed !  '  it  to  the  mountain  saith, 
And  with  audacious  feet,  secure  and  proud, 
Ascends  the  ladder  leaning  on  the  cloud!  " 


REMARKS. 


President  Cheever  :  We  hope  to  make  this  buikling  the  permanent 
home  of  tke  Massachusetts  Medical  Society.  The  cohesive  and  conservative 
force  of  our  parent  organization  is  well  represented  in  its  president  —  the 
medico-legal  pathologist,  may  I  not  say,  of  New  England. 

REMARKS  BY   F.    W.   DRAPER,   M.D., 

President  of  the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society. 

It  is  a  congenial  official  duty,  Mr.  President,  and  an  enviable  personal 
honor,  to  respond  to  your  call,  and,  in  the  name  of  the  Massachusetts  Medical 
Society,  to  swell  the  chorus  of  congratulations  which  this  occasion  inspires. 
To  one  who  has  watched  the  evolution  of  this  Medical  Library  from  its 
beginning  to  its  present  moment,  this  jubilee  is  as  appropriate  as  it  is  spon- 
taneous. I  recall  the  modest  but  hopeful  way  in  which  the  library  began  its 
housekeeping  in  Hamilton  Place.  I  remember  in  what  an  incredibly  short 
time  it  burst  its  bounds,  becoming  so  megalocheirous  that  all  books  in  sight 
were  gathered  in  ;  the  result  of  this  benevolent  assimilation,  this  rapid  expan- 
sion, was  its  removal  to  other  and  larger  premises.  How  it  has  grown  and 
prospered  there,  how  it  has  faithfully  fulfilled  its  mission,  under  somewhat 
trying  conditions,  while  in  that  diverticulum  of  hidden  dangers,  that  Bolie- 
mian  midway  pleasance,  Boylston  Place,  you  can  all  remember. 

And  now,  following  the  westward  example  of  every  correct  imperial 
course,  it  has  made  its  second  migration  and  has  come  here  to  what  we  may 
believe  is  its  permanent  home.  And  when  we  contemplate  that  home,  its 
faultless    architecture,  its  picturesque    and   dignified  environment,  its    ample 


16  REMARKS. 

appointments,  it  is  easy  to  join  in  expressions  of  gratification  and  to  congratu- 
late the  library  corporation  upon  this  auspicious  and  most  satisfactory 
achievement.  Here  the  many  thousand  books  which  comprise  this  library 
have  a  fitting  domicile,  and  one  can  almost  hear  them  say,  one  to  another,  as 
they  settle  themselves  contentedly  in  their  permanent  and  harmonious 
places  on  the  shelves,  "  Isn't  this  restful?  Isn't  this  comfort?"  Here  the 
busy  man  in  active  practice  can  quickly  find  just  the  help  he  wants  to  take 
him  over  his  clinical  difficulties.  Here  the  scholarly  lover  of  good  books  can 
browse  at  his  leisure  in  the  well-tilled,  overproductive  fields  of  medical  litera- 
ture. Here  the  diligent  seeker  for  facts  finds  in  the  files  of  current  medical 
journals,  gathered  in  this  storehouse  from  all  jmrts  of  the  world,  the  latest 
record  of  research  and  observation.  Here  the  ambitious  undergraduate  stu- 
dent of  medicine,  eager  for  knowledge,  satisfies  his  longing. 

And,  then,  there  is  another  way  in  which  this  library  meets  the 
needs  of  medical  men  and  appeals  to  their  gratitude.  I  know  of  nothing 
quite  so  depressing  in  the  experience  of  a  sensitive  physician  as  the  abso- 
lutely heartless  way  in  which  his  tried  and  trusted  friends,  the  books  in  his 
medical  library,  are  hustled  and  forced  to  the  rear  by  new  and  strenuous 
candidates  for  favor.  These  older  familiar  guides  and  counsellors  of  his, 
whom  he  has  loved  and  in  whom  he  has  confided,  must  be  pushed  aside  to 
make  room  for  the  latest  publication ;  senile  obsolescence  claims  them  as  its 
victims  while  they  are  yet  young.  Something  of  the  same  sort  is  seen  in  the 
rapidly  moving  procession  of  new  and  revised  editions  of  the  standard  works. 
You  begin  to  get  accustomed  to  Dr.  Osier's  classic  volume  when  his  second 
edition  knocks  at  the  door  and  seeks  admission,  and  this  has  hardly  settled 
in  its  place  and  become  acquainted  with  its  neighbors  when  the  third  edition 
is  announced.  And  so  it  goes  with  all  the  writers  whom  we  recognize  as  the 
leading  authorities.  The  demand  for  new  editions  is  good  proof  of  the  ad- 
vance of  medicine,  but  it  requires  an  alert  brain  and  a  plethoric  purse  to  do 
it  justice.  Thus  it  hajipens  that  most  private  libraries  of  medical  books, 
belonging  to  physicians  in  middle  life,  contain  many  volumes  too  old  to  be 
usefully  modern  and  not  old  enough  to  be  valuable  on  that  account.  And 
it  is  here  that  the  Medical  Library  in  this  building  will  help  us  ;  because,  for 


F.    W.   DRAPER.  17 

the  modest  annual  assessment,  every  member  can  have  the  benefit  of  the 
latest  thing  in  medical  litei-ature,  either  in  original  works  or  in  new  edi- 
tions.    And  this  is  a  very  obvious  advantage. 

The  reasons  why  the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society  should  take  special 
interest  in  the  Medical  Library  are  plain.  In  all  its  century  and  more  of 
organized  life,  our  venerable  but  ever  vigorous  State  medical  fellowship  has 
been  the  consistent  patron  of  sound  medical  literature,  the  zealous  advocate 
of  the  best  in  medical  education,  the  cordial  exponent  of  medical  progress ; 
and  in  all  these  relatfons  it  is  in  closest  sympathy  with  the  fundamental 
spirit  and  purpose  of  this  library.  I  would  remind  you,  too,  that  the  mem- 
bership of  this  institution  is  largely  comjjosed  of  Fellows  of  the  Massachusetts 
Medical  Society ;  that  its  entire  administration  has  been  in  their  hands, 
and  that  the  successful  development  and  nurture  of  it  have  been  under  their 
guidance  and  control.  It  is  not  surprising,  then,  that  the  Massachusetts 
Medical  Society  takes  an  interest  in  this  consummation  of  an  enterprise 
which  you,  sir,  and  your  associates  have  accomplished.  And  it  is  entirely 
proper  that  it  should  add  its  laurel  wreath  of  special  appreciation  as  a 
tribute  to  the  man  whom  Dr.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  once  described  as  the 
"  untiring,  imperturbable,  tenacious,  irrepressible,  all-subduing  agitator,  who 
neither  rested  nor  let  others  rest  until  the  success  of  the  library  project 
was  assured."  The  description  fits  Dr.  Chad  wick  today  as  accurately  as  it 
did  in  1878. 

I  must  not  forget  to  allude  to  another  and  very  intimate  relationship 
which  the  library  sustains  towards  the  society,  the  relationship  of  landlord 
and  tenant,  continuing  under  this  roof  an  association  which  has  been  mutually 
satisfactory  for  many  years ;  and  I  am  glad  to  have  this  opportunity  to  make 
public  acknowledgment  of  the  liberal  and  altogether  acceptable  manner  in 
which  the  tenant's  needs  have  been  met.  As  time  goes  by,  these  large  and 
attractive  halls  will  be  the  scene  of  meetings  and  of  conferences  representing 
the  best  thought  of  the  medical  men  of  this  community.  More  than  that  — 
here  will  be  found  the  very  centre  and  focus  of  our  highest  medical  interests, 
the  home  of  our  medical  sodality,  where  the  rust  of  exclusiveness  and 
reserve  will  be  rubbed  away  by  social  contact  with  our  fellows,  and  where  we 


18  kp:maeks. 

may  cultivate  mutual  respect  and  courtesy,  taking  counsel  together  and  stand- 
ing together  for  the  highest  good  of  our  profession. 

These  are  some  of  the  considerations,  Mr.  President,  which  not  only 
inspire  gratitude  and  congratulation,  but  awaken  the  most  cordial  hope  that 
the  library  will  have  increasing  prosperity  through  all  its  future ;  that  it  will 
be  an  important  factor  in  promoting  the  progress  of  medicine  in  this  city, 
there  is  not  a  shadow  of  doubt. 


willia:m  osler.  19 


President  Cheever  :  The  professor  of  medicine  of  Johns  Hopkins 
University  is  himself  one  of  the  best  examples  of  the  scientific  progress  of  our 
profession.  As  a  clear  and  forceful  writer,  as  a  sound,  and  not  too  progres- 
sive, practitioner,  as  a^-lucid  expounder  in  the  clinic,  he  is  well  recognized  in 
our  United  States.  He  has  honored  us  by  his  presence  and  has  promised  to 
address  us'. 

REMARKS  2  BY   WILLIAM   OSLER,   M.D.,  LL.D ,   F.R.S., 

Professor  of  Medicine  in  the  Johns  Hopkins    Unvversitij. 

Those  of  us  from  other  cities  who  bring  congratulations  this  evening  can 
hardly  escape  the  tinglings  of  envy  when  we  see  this  noble  treasure  house  ; 
but  in  my  own  case  the  bitter  waters  of  jealousy  which  rise  in  my  soul  are  at 
once  diverted  by  two  strong  sensations.  In  the  first  place  I  have  a  feeling 
of  lively  gratitude  towards  this  library.  In  1876  as  a  youngster  interested 
in  certain  clinical  subjects  to  which  I  could  find  no  reference  in  our  library 
at  McGill,  I  came  to  Boston,  and  I  here  found  what  I  wanted,  and  I  found 
moreover  a  cordial  welcome  and  many  friends.  It  was  a  small  matter  I  was 
seeking,  but  I  wished  to  make  it  as  complete  as  possible,  and  I  have  always 
felt  that  this  library  helped  me  to  a  good  start.  It  has  always  been  such 
a  pleasure  in  recurring  visits  to  the  library  to  find  Dr.  Brigham  in  charge, 
with  the  same  kindly  interest  in  visitors  that  he  showed  a  quarter  of  a 
century  ago.  But  the  feeling  which  absorbs  all  others  is  one  of  deep  satis- 
faction that  our  friend.  Dr.  Chadwick,  has  at  last  seen  fulfilled  the  desire  of 
his  eyes.  To  few  is  given  the  tenacity  of  will  which  enables  a  man  to 
pursue  a  cherished  purpose  through  a  quarter  of  a  century  — "  Ohne  Hast, 
aher  ohne  Rast "  (  'tis  his  favorite  quotation)  ;  to  fewer  still  is  the  fruition 
granted.  Too  often  the  reaper  is  not  the  sower.  Too  often  the  fate  of  those 
2  Books  and  Men. 


20  REMARKS. 

who  labor  at  some  object  for  the  public  good  is  to  see  their  work  pass 
into  other  hands,  and  to  liave  others  get  the  credit  for  enterprises  which 
the}'  have  initiated  and  made  possible.  It  has  not  been  so  with  our  friend, 
and  it  intensities  a  thousandfold  the  pleasure  of  this  occasion  to  feel  the  fit- 
ness, in  every  way,  of  the  felicitations  which  have  been  offered  to  him. 

It  is  hard  for  me  to  speak  of  the  value  of  libraries  in  terms  which  would 
not  seem  exaggerated.  Books  have  been  my  delight  these  thirty  years, 
and  from  them  I  have  received  incalculable  benefits.  To  study  the  phe- 
nomena of  disease  without  books  is  to  sail  an  uncharted  sea,  while  to  study 
books  without  patients  is  not  to  go  to  sea  at  all.  Only  a  maker  of  books  can 
appreciate  the  labors  of  others  at  their  true  value.  Those  of  us  who  have 
brought  forth  fat  volumes  should  offer  hecatombs  at  these  shrines  of  Minerva 
Medica.  What  exsuccous,  attenuated  offspring  they  would  have  been  but 
for  the  pabulum  furnished  through  the  placental  circulation  of  a  library. 
How  often  can  it  be  said  of  us  with  truth,  '■^Das  heste  was  er  ist  verdankt  er 
Andern  !  " 

For  the  teacher  and  the  worker  a  great  library  such  as  this  is  indispensa- 
ble. They  must  know  the  world's  best  work  and  know  it  at  once.  They 
mint  and  make  current  coin  the  ore  so  widely  scattered  in  journals,  transac- 
tions and  monographs.  The  splendid  collections  which  now  exist  in  five  or 
six  of  our  cities  and  the  unique  opportunities  of  the  Surgeon-General's 
Library  have  done  much  to  give  to  American  medicine  its  thoroughly  eclectic 
character. 

But  when  one  considers  the  unending  making  of  books,  who  does  not 
sigh  for  the  happy  days  of  that  thrice  happy  Sir  William  Browne  whose 
pocket  library  sufficed  for  his  life's  needs  ;  drawing  from  a  Greek  testa- 
ment his  divinity,  from  the  aphorisms  of  Hippocrates  his  medicine,  and  from 
an  Elzevir  Horace  his  good  sense  and  vivacity.  There  should  be  in  connec- 
tion with  every  library  a  corps  of  instructors  in  the  art  of  reading,  who  would, 
as  a  labor  of  love,  teach  the  young  idea  how  to  read.  An  old  writer  says 
that  there  are  four  sorts  of  readers :  "  Sponges  wdiich  attract  all  without  dis- 
tinguishing;  Howre-glasses  which  receive  and  powre  out  as  fast;  Bagges 
which  only  retain  the  dregges  of  the  spices  and  let  the  wine  escape,  and  Sives 


WILLIAM    OSLER.  21 

which  retaine  the  best  ouely."  A  man  wastes  a  great  many  years  before  he 
reaches  the  '  sive  '  stage. 

P"'or  the  general  practitioner  a  well-used  library  is  one  of  the  few  correc- 
tives of  the  premature  senility  which  is  so  apt  to  overtake  him.  Self-centred, 
self-taught,  he  leads  a  solitary  life,  and  unless  liis  every-day  experience  is  con- 
trolled by  careful  reading  or  by  the  attrition  of  a  medical  society  it  soon  ceases 
to  be  of  the  slightest  value  and  becomes  a  mere  accretion  of  isolated  facts, 
without  correlation.  It  is  astonishing  with  how  little  reading  a  doctor  can 
practise  medicine,  but  *t  is  not  astonishing  how  badly  he  may  do  it.  Not  three 
months  ago  a  physician  living  within  an  hour's  ride  of  the  Surgeon-General's 
Library  brought  his  little  girl,  aged  twelve,  to  me.  The  diagnosis  of  infantile 
myxedema  required  only  half  a  glance.  In  placid  contentment  he  had  been 
practising  twenty  years  in  "  Sleepy  Hollow  "  and  not  even  when  his  own  flesh 
and  blood  was  touched  did  he  rouse  from  an  apathy  deep  as  Rip  Van  Winkle's 
sleep.  In  reply  to  questions  :  No,  he  had  never  seen  anything  in  the  journals 
about  the  thyroid  gland ;  he  had  seen  no  pictures  of  cretinism  or  myxedema ; 
in  fact  his  mind  was  a  blank  on  the  whole  subject.  He  had  not  been  a  reader, 
he  said,  but  he  was  a  practical  man  with  very  little  time.  I  could  not  help 
thinking  of  John  Bunyan's  remarks  on  the  elements  of  success  in  the  practice 
of  medicine.  "  Physicians,"  he  says,  "  get  neither  name  nor  fame  by  the 
pricking  of  wheals  or  the  picking  out  thistles,  or  by  laying  of  plaisters  to  the 
scratch  of  a  pin  ;  every  old  woman  can  do  this.  But  if  they  would  have  a 
name  and  a  fame,  if  they  will  have  it  quickly,  they  must  do  some  great  and 
desperate  cures.  Let  them  fetch  one  to  life  that  was  dead,  let  them  recover 
one  to  his  wits  that  was  mad,  let  them  make  one  that  was  born  blind  to  see, 
or  let  them  give  ripe  wits  to  a  fool  —  these  are  notable  cures,  and  he  that  can 
do  thus,  if  he  doth  thus  first,  he  shall  have  the  name  and  fame  he  deserves ; 
he  may  lie  abed  till  noon."  Had  my  doctor  friend  been  a  reader  he  might 
have  done  a  great  and  notable  cure  and  even  have  given  ripe  wits  to  a  fool ! 
It  is  in  utilizing  the  fresh  knowledge  of  the  journals  that  the  young  ^^hysician 
may  attain  quickly  to  the  name  and  fame  he  desires. 

There  is  a  third  class  of  men  in  the  profession  to  whom  books  are  dearer 
tlian  to  teachers  or  practitioners  —  a  small,  a  silent  band,  but  in  reality  the 


22  REMARKS. 

leaven  of  the  whole  lump.  The  profane  call  tlicm  bibliomaniacs,  and  in  truth 
they  are  at  times  irresponsible  and  do  not  always  know  tlie  difference  between 
meiim  and  tuum.  In  the  presence  of  Dr.  Billings  or  of  Dr.  Chadwick  I  dare 
not  further  characterize  them.  Loving  books  partly  for  their  contents,  partly 
for  the  sake  of  the  authors,  they  not  alone  keep  alive  the  sentiment  of  histori- 
cal continuity  in  the  profession,  but  they  are  the  men  who  make  possible  such 
gatherings  as  the  one  we  are  enjoying  this  evening.  "We  need  more  men  of 
their  class,  particularly  in  this  country,  where  every  one  carries  in  his  pocket 
tlie  tape-measure  of  utility.  Along  two  lines  their  work  is  valuable.  By  the 
historical  method  alone  can  many  problems  in  medicine  be  approached  profit- 
ably. For  example,  the  student  who  dates  his  knowledge  of  tuberculosis  from 
Koch  may  have  a  very  correct,  but  he  has  a  very  incomplete,  appreciation  of 
the  subject.  Within  a  quarter  of  a  century  our  libraries  will  have  certain 
alcoves  devoted  to  the  historical  consideration  of  the  great  diseases,  which  will 
give  to  the  student  that  mental  perspective  which  is  so  valuable  an  equipment 
in  life.  The  past  is  a  good  nurse,  as  Lowell  remarks,  particularly  for  the 
weanlings  of  the  fold. 

"  'Tis  man's  worst  deed 

To  let  tlie  things  that  have  been  run  to  waste 

And  in  the  unmeaning  Present  sink  the  Past." 

But  in  a  more  excellent  way  these  laudatores  temporis  acti  render  a  royal 
service.  For  each  one  of  us  today,  as  in  Plato's  time,  there  is  a  higher  as 
well  as  a  lower  education.  The  very  marrow  and  fatness  of  books  may  not 
suffice  to  save  a  man  from  becoming  a  poor,  mean-spirited  devil,  without  a 
spark  of  fine  professional  feeling,  and  without  a  thought  above  the  sordid 
issues  of  the  day.  The  men  I  speak  of  keep  alive  in  us  an  interest  in  the 
great  men  of  the  past  and  not  alone  in  their  works,  which  they  cherish,  but  in 
their  lives,  which  they  emulate.  They  would  remind  us  continually  that  in 
the  records  of  no  other  profession  is  there  to  be  found  so  large  a  number  of 
men  who  have  combined  intellectual  pre-eminence  with  nobility  of  character. 
This  higher  education  so  much  needed  today  is  not  given  in  the  schools,  is  not 
to  be  bought  in  the  market  place,  but  it  has  to  be  wrought  out  in  each  one  of 
us  for  himself ;  it  is  the  silent  influence  of  character  on  character  and  in  no 


WILLIAM    OSLER.  Z6 

way  more  potently  than  in  the  contemplation  of  the  lives  of  the  great  and 
good  of  the  past,  in  no  way  more  than  in  "  the  touch  divine  of  noble  natures 
gone." 

I  should  like  to  see  in  each  library  a  select  company  of  the  Immortals  set 
apart  for  special  adoration.  Each  country  might  have  its  representatives  in  a 
sort  of  alcove  of  Fame,  in  which  the  great  medical  classics  were  gathered. 
Not  necessarily  books,  more  often  the  epoch-making  contributions  to  be  found 
in  ephemeral  journals.  .  It  is  too  early,  perhaps,  to  make  a  selection  of  Ameri- 
can medical  classics,  but  it  might  be  worth  while  to  gather  suffrages  on  the 
contributions  which  should  go  upon  the  Roll  of  Honor.  I  did  a  few  years 
ago  make  out  a  list  of  those  I  thought  the  most  worthy  to  1850,  and  it  has  a 
certain  interest  for  us  this  evening.  The  native  modesty  of  the  Boston  physi- 
cian is  well  known,  but  in  certain  circles  there  has  always  been  associated 
with  it  a  curious  psychical  phenomenon,  a  conviction  of  the  utter  worthless- 
ness  of  the  status  prcesens  in  New  England,  as  compared  with  conditions 
existing  elsewhere.  There  is  a  variety  today  of  the  Back  Bay  Brahmin  who 
delights  in  cherishing  the  belief  that  medically  things  are  everywhere  better 
than  in  Boston,  and  who  is  always  ready  to  predict  '•  an  Asiatic  removal  of 
candlesticks,"  to  borrow  a  phrase  from  Cotton  Mather.  Strange  indeed 
would  it  have  been  had  not  such  a  plastic  profession  as  ours  felt  the  influences 
which  moulded  New  England  into  the  intellectual  centre  of  the  New  World. 
In  reality,  nowhere  in  the  country  has  the  profession  been  adorned  more 
plentifully  with  men  of  culture  and  of  character  and,  happily,  not  voluminous 
writers  or  exploiters  of  the  products  of  other  men's  brains  —  they  would  man- 
age to  get  a  full  share  on  the  Roll  of  Fame  which  I  have  suggested.  To 
1850,  I  have  counted  some  twenty  contributions  of  the  first  rank,  contribu- 
tions which  for  one  reason  or  another  deserve  to  be  called  American  medical 
classics.  New  England  takes  ten.  But  in  medicine  the  men  she  has  given  to 
the  other  parts  of  the  country  have  been  better  than  books.  Men  like 
Nathan  R.  Smith,  Austin  Flint,  A\^illard  Parker,  Alonzo  Clark,  Elisha  Bart- 
lett,  John  C.  Dalton  and  others  carried  away  from  their  New  England  homes 
a  love  of  truth,  a  love  of  learning  and  above  all  a  proper  estimate  of  the  per- 
sonal character  of  the  physician. 


24  REMARKS. 

Dr.  .lolinsoii  shrewdly  remarked  that  ambition  was  usually  proportionate 
to  capacity,  which  is  as  true  of  a  profession  as  it  is  of  a  man.  What  we  have 
seen  tonight  reflects  credit  not  less  on  your  ambition  than  on  your  capacity. 
A  library  after  all  is  a  great  catalyser,  accelerating  the  nutrition  and  rate  of 
progress  in  a  profession,  and  I  am  sure  you  wall  find  yourselves  the  better  for 
the  sacrifice  you  have  made  in  secui'ing  this  home  for  your  books,  this  work- 
shop for  your  members. 


J.    S.    BILLINGS.  25 


President  Cheever  :  The  librarian  of  the  New  York  Public  Library 
represents  the  largest  collections  of  our  land  next  to  the  Congressional  Li- 
brary. Fortunate  for  us  and  for  medicine  that  he  has  given  some  of  the  best 
years  of  his  life  to  onr  interests,  and  that  in  the  Surgeon-General's  Office  and 
in  the  Army  Museum  jjid  Library  he  has  indexed  the  medical  universe. 

RfiMARKS   BY  J.   S.   BILLINGS,   M.D.,   LL.D.,   D.C.L., 

Librarian  of  the  Xew    York  Public  Library. 

No  doubt  we  have  all  heard  "platform  figureheads"  —  of  advanced 
years  and  much  experience  —  commence  their  remarks  on  occasions  like  this 
by  saying  that  one  of  the  privileges  of  old  age  is  the  perspective,  restrospec- 
tive  view  which  it  gives  of  institutions,  society  and  the  world  in  general.  I 
used  to  suppose  that  this  was  an  excuse  for,  and  explanation  of,  the  attitude 
of  sage  and  prophet  assumed  by  the  speaker,  and  that  he  enjoyed  solid  com- 
fort in  giving  advice ;  but  I  am  now  beginning  to  appreciate  how  those  old 
gentlemen  really  felt  when  they  announced  this  important  discovery.  Most 
of  them,  I  think,  did  not  feel  as  wise  as  they  looked,  nor  as  certain  and  free 
from  doubt  as  they  did  in  their  youth,  but  circumstance  compelled  them  to 
speak,  and  this  was  a  way  to  begin. 

As  I  look  back  to  the  ceremonies  of  opening  the  then  new  building  for 
this  library  in  Boylston  Place  in  LS78,  I  find  that  of  the  speakers  on  that 
occasion,  I  am  the  only  one  now  present.  President  Eliot  is  still  very  much 
alive,  although  not  here  tonight ;  but  Holmes,  Ellis,  Lyman,  Smith,  Henry  I. 
Bowditch  and  Justin  Winsor  have  passed  away,  and  their  biographies  have 
been  written.  Fortunately,  the  results  of  their  work  remain  and  are  enlarg- 
ing, and  one  of  tliese  results  we  have  before  us  tonight. 

The  medical  prospect  has  changed  somewhat  within  the  last  twent^^-two 
years  ;  there  is  a  new  literature,  a  new  pathology,  a  new  surgery,  and  new 
names   for  some  very  old  things,  —  Christian  Science,  for  example,  —  but  the 


26  REMARKS. 

old  records  have  not  lost  all  interest,  and  the  special  value  of  the  library  is 
that  it  contains  both  the  old  and  the  new.  Tn  his  memorable  address  twenty- 
two  years  ago,  Dr.  Holmes  rightly  insisted  that  a  library  like  this  must 
exercise  the  largest  hospitality,  but  this  applies  to  gifts  rather  than  to  pur- 
chases. The  funds  for  conducting  a  library,  medical  or  other,  are  always 
insufficient,  and  the  librarian,  or  library  committee,  must  therefore  exclude 
from  the  purchase  lists  many  works  which  might  be  welcome  additions  if 
obtainable  from  other  sources.  The  selection  is  sometimes  difficult,  and  in 
making  it,  the  work  of  other  reference  libraries  in  the  vicinity,  such  as  the 
public  library,  the  university  library,  and  some  special  libraries,  must  be 
considered.  Even  gifts  must  be  scrutinized  with  reference  to  available  space, 
and  to  their  relative  utility  in  other  neighboring  institutions.  This  library 
does  not  want  a  set  of  United  States  pul)lic  documents,  or  of  Massachusetts 
documents,  although  in  each  of  these  series  there  are  a  few  things  which  it 
should  secure.  Curious  things  may  be  found  in  public  documents.  How 
many  of  you,  I  wonder,  have  ever  heard  of  Herkimer  Sternberg,  and  his  great 
medical  discovery,  which  is  vaguely  indicated  in  the  following  extract  from 
Document  No.  15  of  the  Assembly  of  the  State  of  New  York,  dated  January 
15,  1859,  being  a  report  of  the  Committee  on  Medical  Societies  and  Colleges, 
relative  to  the  petition  of  Herkimer  Sternberg  for  aid  in  publishing  his  manu- 
script of  a  proposed  work.  The  committee  reports  ''  that  they  have  had  under 
their  serious  consideration  the  subject  referred  to  them  and  have  become 
satisfied  if  the  prayer  of  the  petitioner  be  granted,  that  the  result  of  the 
scheme  proposed  by  this  Herkimer  Sternberg,  if  successful,  will  be  the  an- 
nihilation of  the  medical  profession,  and  thus  the  five  or  six  thousand  doctors 
of  our  State  will  be  turned  out  upon  the  cold  charities  of  an  unfeeling  world ; 
that  it  will  introduce  the  millenium  several  years  before  its  proper  advent 
in  the  regular  order  of  business ;  that  it  will  dislocate  every  joint  in  the 
system  of  the  moral  universe  .  .  .  and,  therefore,  the  committee  ask  to  be 
discharged  from  its  further  consideration." 

In  cities  where  there  is  no  medical  library,  it  is  clearly  the  duty  of  the 
public  library  to  provide  some  of  the  best  medical  books  and  periodicals  for 
the  use  of  the  ^^hysicians  of  the  city,  as  well  as  for  the  direct  benefit  of  the 


J.    S.   BILLINGS.  27 

public.  It,  is  however,  a  mattei-  of  common  experience  that  some-  lay  readers 
are  rather  injured  than  benefited  by  reading  medicine,  and  that  it  is  best  to 
restrict  the  use  of  certain  classes  of  medical  books.  It  simplifies  the  problems 
of  the  librarian  of  the  public  library  when  he  knows  that  there  is  in  the 
city  a  special  medical  library  available  for  the  use  of  physicians,  and  that  he 
need  only  obtain  those  books  which,  if  not  exactly  suitable  for  public  use,  are 
not  calculated  to  do  much  harm.  He  will  usually  be  glad  to  send  to  such  a 
medical  library  the  medical  books  of  the  eighteenth  and  most  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  old  medical  journals,  miscellaneous  medical  pamphlets,  theses,  reports, 
etc.,  and  to- retain  in  the  i^ublic  library  only  those  which  have  some  interest  in 
local  history,  or  in  other  subjects  besides  medicine. 

There  are  certain  duties  and  responsibilities  which  rest  upon  a  few  large 
reference  libraries  which  do  not  pertain  to  the  great  majority  of  city  public 
libraries.  For  example,  the  average  city  library  should  collect  and  preserve 
all  the  reports  of  hospitals  in  its  own  city  as  a  matter  of  local  history,  but 
it  should  not  waste  time  or  energy  over  the  reports  of  hospitals  in  other  cities, 
but  should  send  those  that  come  in  either  to  a  medical  library  or  to  one  of 
the  great  reference  libraries  of  the  country  like  the  Boston  Public,  the  New 
York  Public,  or  the  Congressional  Library.  These  great  libraries  must 
collect  and  preserve  such  reports  as  a  part  of  their  collections  relating  to 
charities — private  and  public  —  an  important  branch  of  sociology,  but  they 
are  only  useful  in  this  way  when  the  collections  are  very  large  and  permit 
of  comparisons  of  methods  and  results  from  a  wide  area  and  for  considerable 
periods  of  time. 

The  field  of  medicine  is  very  broad,  and  the  special  medical  library 
might  properly  include  not  only  general  biology  with  its  general  subdivisions 
of  morphology,  physiology,  psychology  and  anthropology,  but  also  much 
of  the  literature  of  botany,  zoology,  chemistry,  physics,  municipal  engineer- 
ing, building  and  other  applied  sciences  —  and  in  fact  the  great  medical 
libraries  of  London,  Paris,  Berlin,  St.  Petersburg  and  Washington  do  include 
many  of  these  subjects.  But  this  requires  more  space  and  money  than  most 
medical  libraries  can  afford  to  give,  and  hence  it  is  usually  best  to  leave  most 
of  these  subjects  to  other  special  libraries. 


28  KEMARKS. 

The  department  of  first  importance  in  a  library  like  tliis  is  that  which 
contains  its  files  of  periodicals,  not  only  becanse  they  contain  the  original 
records  from  which  textbooks  and  monographs  are  made  up,  but  they  repre- 
sent the  feelings,  views  and  wants  of  the  great  mass  of  the  profession,  and 
are  the  great  sources  for  the  medical  history  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
Medicine  is  now  the  most  cosmopolitan  and  international  of  all  the  arts 
and  professions,  and  this  is  largely  due  to  its  periodicals.  Moreover,  its 
periodical  literature  is  now  more  accessible  than  that  of  any  other  profession 
because  of  the  indexes  upon  which  Dr.  Holmes  so  much  insisted.  All  this 
has  been  fully  recognized  by  your  librarian,  and  you  are  very  rich  in  this 
class  of  literature.  Thanks  to  the  efforts  of  the  medical  profession  of 
Boston  (aided  by  those  of  some  other  parts  of  the  country).  Congress  was 
induced  to  order  the  printing  of  the  Index  Catalogue  of  the  Washington 
Collection  which  was  under  consideration  twenty-two  years  ago,  and  which  I 
then  thought  might  make  six  volumes.  This  Index  Catalogue  is  not  yet 
finished,  only  twenty  volumes  having  been  published ;  but  it  can  give  con- 
siderable employment  to  the  bibliographical  student  even  now,  and  has  prob- 
ably added  to  the  practical  utility  of  this  library,  but  perhaps  not  always  to 
the  perfect  joy  and  content  of  its  readers. 

The  fact  that  the  physicians  of  Boston  have  another  library  besides  this 
one  to  care  for,  as  shown  by  their  action  with  regard  to  the  Index  Catalogue, 
is  one  that  I  venture  to  remind  you  of  because  the  needs  of  your  National 
Medical  Library  are  liable  to  be  overlooked.  Just  now  it  is  in  urgent  need 
of  shelving  for  its  additions,  some  of  which  are  being  stored  in  window  sills 
or  on  the  floor,  which  is  bad  for  the  books  and  for  the  readers. 

Requests  for  funds  to  provide  this  shelving  have  been  presented  at  the 
last  two  sessions  of  Congress,  but  received  no  attention.  An  estimate  is 
before  the  present  Congress  for  $9,000  to  supply  this  shelving,  and  if  the 
Massachusetts  representatives  and  senators  hear  from  their  medical  consti- 
tuents that  this  is  a  matter  in  which  they  are  interested,  there  is  no  doubt 
that  it  will  be  done.  Your  Washington  Medical  Library  now  contains  136,000 
volumes  and  230,000  pamphlets — decidedly  the  lai-gest  and  best  library  of 
its  kind  in  the  world  —  and  ought  to  be  kept  up  to  date  in  good  shape. 


J.    S.    BILLINGS.  29 

When  I  tried  to  say  something  on  the  occasion  of  the  opening  of  this 
library  in  the  Boylston  Place  Building,  I  well  remember  that  I  was  very 
much  embarrassed  and  not  a  little  afraid,  and  would  have  been  very  glad  to 
have  been  merely  a  listener. 

On  the  present  occasion,  while  I  am  in  trouble  to  find  the  right  words 
in  which  to  express  my  thoughts  and  feelings,  I  am  very  glad  indeed  to  have 
the  opportunity  to  congratulate  you  upon  the  result  of  the  work  of  the  Boston 
Medical  Library  Assocktion  during  the  last  twenty-five  years,  and  I  do  con- 
gratulate 3'ou  most  heartily  and  sincerely.  The  collection  of  books,  of  por- 
traits, of  medals,  the  building  in  its  plan,  structure  and  furnishings,  are  all 
things  of  which  you  have  good  right  to  be  proud,  and  with  which  you  may 
rest  satisfied  for  several  weeks  to  come. 

As  you  all  know,  these  results  are  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  one  man 
having  abundance  of  energy  and  public  spirit,  with  much  knowledge  and  an 
insatiable  thirst  for  more,  and  with  a  fairly  definite  idea  of  what  he  wanted, 
has  been  working  incessantly  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  towards  this 
end.  I  congratulate  you  upon  your  wisdom  in  letting  him  thus  work,  and 
in  helping  him  to  carry  out  this  plan.  His  power  for  good  has  not  been 
limited  to  Boston,  for  by  way  of  recreation  he  has  devoted  some  of  his  time 
to  stirring  up  and  stimulating  other  librarians  like  myself,  when  he  thought 
they  needed  it,  or  when  he  had  some  superfluous  energy  to  dispose  of,  which 
was  often.  In  this  and  other  ways,  he  has  given  material  and  valuable  assist- 
ance to  other  libraries,  moi'e  than  any  of  you  are  aware  of,  and  it  is  not  my 
personal  affection  for  him,  great  as  that  is,  but  a  sense  of  what  is  just  and 
right,  which  leads  me  to  say  to  you  that,  while  the  Boston  Medical  Library 
has  been  his  special  pet,  for  which  no  trouble  was  too  great  to  take,  and  no 
sacrifice  too  great  to  make,  all  other  medical  libraries  in  this  country  are 
more  or  less  indebted  for  their  progress  and  prosperity  to  your  librarian,  Dr. 
James  R.  Chadwick. 


30  REMARKS. 


President  Chebver  :  The  genial  professor  of  therapeutics  from  Phila- 
delphia will  now  address  us.  He  is  also  a  professor  of  nervous  diseases,  but 
he  will  omit  that  branch  on  this  occasion.  As  representing  the  oldest  medical 
centre  in  America,  and  still  among  the  most  modern,  I  take  especial  pleasure 
in  introducing  him  to  you. 

REMARKS   BY   H.  C.  WOOD,  M.D.,  LL.D., 

College  of  Physiciaru  of  Philadelphia ;  Professor  of  Nervous  Diseases  and   Therapeutics,    Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania. 

Mr.  President  and  Gentlemen  who  have  assisted  in  the  crea- 
tion OF  THE  Boston  Medical  Library.  —  It  is  with  a  high  sense  of  the 
honor  conferred  upon  me  that  I  bring  greetings  and  congratulations  in  this, 
the  opening  of  the  twentieth  century,  to  you,  the  fruit  of  whose  labors  is 
seen  in  the  substantial  edifice  and  the  loaded  bookshelves  which  surround 
us ;  greetings  and  congratulations  from  the  College  of  Physicians  of  Phila- 
delphia. 

In  doing  this  I  desire  to  exj^ress  most  warmly  my  appreciation  of  the 
great  work  which  has  been  done  largely  through  the  efforts  of  a  few  men 
among  you,  and  in  a  comparatively  brief  period.  It  may  well  be  questioned 
whether  so  rapidly  a  successful  effort  has  been  equalled  upon  the  American 
Continent,  and  I  trust  that  it  will  be  understood  that  what  I  have  to  say 
in  regard  to  the  institution  which  I  represent  is  said  in  no  sjjirit  of  egotism, 
but  simply  as  the  effort  of  age,  perhaps  senile  and  garrulous,  to  read  lessons 
to  the  young  through  its  own  experience. 

The  College  of  Physicians  of  Philadelphia  was  born  January  2,  1787, 
amidst  surroundings  most  primitive,  and  has  grown  with  the  growth  of 
American  civilization.  That  the  founders  of  the  college  had  very  clear  ideas 
as  to  the  necessity  of  a  medical  library  for  the  increase  of  medical  knowledge. 


H.   C.    WOOD.  31 

and  for  the  perfection  of  medical  units,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  during  the 
first  year  of  its  existence  the  college  discussed  the  subject,  and  a  few  weeks 
later,  namely,  on  March  3,  1788,  by  the  formal  acceptance  of  the  gift  from 
Dr.  John  Morgan  of  24  volumes,  by  the  approval  of  a  regular  plan  for  a 
library,  and  by  the  appropriation  of  fifty  pounds  —  Colonial  —  for  the  pur- 
chase of  books,  laid  the  foundation  of  that  collection  of  medical  books  which 
is  today  the  most  valuable  of  its  kind  in  the  United  States,  save  only  the 
one  in  Washington  belonging  to  the  Federal  Government.  In  the  library  of 
the  college  at  Philadelphia  there  are  at  present  61,359,  or  including  dupli- 
cates, 65,499  volumes,  besides  unbound  pamphlets ;  there  is  also  an  especial 
fund  of  $50,000  for  the  purchase  of  new  books. 

It  has  seemed  to  me,  in  thinking  over  what  I  know  of  the  profession  in 
Boston,  that  possibly  it  might  be  well  for  the  association  of  physicians  which 
has  been  successful  in  the  creation  of  the  library  about  us  to  widen  the  scope 
of  its  operations,  and  thereby  do  great  good  and  indirectly  assist  the  library 
itself.  So  far  as  can  be  seen,  if  the  founders  of  the  College  of  Physicians 
had  made  the  creation  of  the  library  their  sole  object,  the  library  would  have 
soon  perished  as  one  born  out  of  due  time.  It  has  been  the  cohesive  in- 
fluence of  aims  other  than  those  purely  scholastic  which  has  bound  together 
successive  generations  of  medical  practitioners  in  Philadelphia  so  firmly  as  to 
make  possible  the  gathering  together  of  medical  books ;  an  object  which  was 
perhaps  secondary  in  the  minds  of  the  founders,  and  besides  which  in  their 
acts  is  clearly  foreshadowed  a  threefold  intent. 

Plainly  first  among  the  results  which  it  was  hoped  to  attain  was  by  foster- 
ing intercourse  amongst  fellows  of  the  college  to  increase  that  personal  friend- 
ship and  amity  which  restrains  far  more  powerfully  tendencies  to  professional 
jealousy  and  undue  rivalry  than  can  any  written  law  of  ethics  or  any  incul- 
cation of  precepts  of  professional  conduct  even  during  the  educational  period 
of  life ;  the  result  has  been  that  there  are  few  members  of  the  college  who 
do  not  value  the  friendship  and  esteem  of  their  fellows  as  their  choicest  posses- 
sions, and  that  the  relations  between  members  of  the  profession  in  Philadel- 
phia are  among  the  most  perfect  in  the  world. 

The  second  object,  for  the  attainment  of  which  the  college  was  seemingly 


32  REMARKS. 

organized,  was  for  the  stimulation  in  its  members  of  professional  zeal  in  study 
and  in  doing  what  they  could  for  the  enlargement  of  the  boundaries  of  medical 
knowledge.  Even  if  time  allowed,  it  would  be  scarcely  becoming  in  me  to 
show  how  successful  the  years  have  been  in  this  respect,  nor  yet  is  it  needful ; 
the  history  of  medicine  in  Philadelphia  must  bo  sufficiently  known  to  you  to 
recognize  that  in  no  other  centre  in  the  United  States  have  there  been  more 
men  of  national  or  international  fame,  or  more  success  either  in  actually 
increasing  knowledge  or  in  preparing  it  as  brain  food  for  the  rank  and  file 
of  the  profession. 

The  third  intent,  which  was  early  manifested  in  the  acts  of  the  college, 
was  to  afford  a  body  of  physicians,  the  conjoint  local  reputation  of  whose 
members  would  be  sufficient  to  give  overwhelming  weight  to  any  deliberate 
expression  of  opinion  made  by  the  assembly  upon  matters  medical  in  which 
the  general  public  was  concerned. 

A  few  months  after  the  foundation  of  the  library,  namely,  in  April, 
1789,  the  influence  of  the  college  was  first  broixght  to  bear  upon  the  public 
authorities.  The  old  records  show  that  at  the  time  there  was  a  widespread 
epidemic  of  influenza  in  Philadelphia ;  that  the  President  of  the  United 
States  was  to  visit  the  city  on  his  way  from  Mt.  Vernon  to  New  York,  where 
he  was  to  be  inaugurated ;  and  that  among  other  ceremonies  a  general  illumi- 
nation was  proposed ;  but  that  on  the  representation  of  the  college  that  the 
late  night  exposure  in  the  month  of  April  would  undoubtedly  increase  the 
number  of  victims  of  the  prevailing  disease,  the  proposed  illumination  was 
abandoned.  The  action  of  the  college  and  its  results  may  after  all  have  been 
matters  of  no  great  importance,  but  they  were  drifting  straws,  showing  the 
set  of  the  current  of  public  opinion ;  a  current  which  later  in  the  same  year 
led  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania  to  formally  apply  to  the  college  for 
assistance  in  the  emendation  of  the  State  laws  for  the  prevention  of  the 
introduction  of  infectious  diseases. 

To  make  further  citations  of  similar  instances  of  correlation  between  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  the  governmental  authorities  of  the  State  or  of 
the  city  would  require  simply  a  going  over  the  records  of  the  history  of  the 
college,  but  I  have  been  sternly  warned  not  to  overpass  ten  minutes  of  time, 


H.   C.   WOOD.  33 

so  I  forbear ;  only  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  College  of  Physicians 
has  frequently  taken  part  in  governmental  procedures,  and  that  the  degree  of 
attentiveness  of  the  governmental  ear  to  its  voice  has  usually  been  a  fair 
measure  of  the  wisdom  and  the  honesty  of  the  governmental  brain.  As 
politics  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word  has  grown  among  us  to  be  more  and 
more  of  a  special  business,  so  has  the  governmental  ear  been  dulled ;  as  city 
or  State  governments  have  risen  or  ebbed  in  the  standard  of  their  purity,  so 
have  the  admonitions  of  the  college  been  listened  to  or  neglected ;  and  usually 
has  the  community  reaped  the  reward  or  paid  the  penalty  for  such  action, 
since  in  most  cases  the  decisions  of  the  college  have  been  correct. 

Such,  gentlemen,  is  the  brief  lesson  which  I  would  read  to  you  from  the 
long  and  successful  history  of  the  College  of  Physicians  of  Philadelphia; 
led  by  it,  I  venture  to  urge  that  for  the  continuing  success  of  your  library, 
for  the  internal  benefit  of  the  profession  in  Boston,  for  the  advancement  of 
medical  knowledge  within  your  bounds,  for  the  general  good  of  the  community 
in  which  you  dwell,  the  association  should  broaden  its  scope,  so  that  it  should 
become  not  simply  a  library  association  but  a  veritable  collegium,  whose 
fellows  pass  through  life  hand  in  hand,  in  all  fidelity  inciting  each  other  to 
good  works. 

May  1  further  add  that  the  history  of  the  Philadelphia  College  indicates 
that  in  such  broadening  certain  matters  must  be  attended  to.  It  seems  to  be 
primarily  essential  that  all  school  fellowships  and  affiliations  be  laid  aside  in 
the  membership.  Alumni  associations  are  well,  but  they  have  here  no  place. 
The  graduate  of  Harvard  must  for  the  time  being  forget  his  Alma  Mater 
in  a  wider  brotherhood,  so  that  whether  a  man  be  a  Boston  graduate  or  come 
from  the  far-ofi"  University  of  Tokyo,  or  from  the  school  of  Gottingen,  he 
shall  be  equally  available  for  membership  in  the  association  and  for  honors 
in  its  body  politic.  On  the  other  hand,  almost  equally  essential  is  it  that  no 
attempt  be  made  to  interfere  with  what  may  be  considered  the  normal  political 
aggregation  of  physicians  in  the  United  States,  namely,  the  county  medical 
societies,  growing  upward  to  the  State  societies,  and  then  to  the  general 
association  in  the  United  States.  In  the  county  medical  societies  every  legal- 
ized physician,  who   is  willing  to  be  honest   and  upright  in  his    profession, 


34  REMARKS. 

should  have  the  right  to  take  part,  but  in  tlie  proposed  organization  the 
standard  of  membership  shoukl  be  liigher ;  so  that  membership  in  the  associa- 
tion should  be  looked  upon  as  an  honor,  because  it  stands  not  only  for  high 
professional  purity  and  ethicality,  but  also  for  high  professional  zeal  and 
culture.  It  is  given  to  but  few  to  be  professional  leaders,  but  many  can  be 
honest  medical  gentlemen,  highly  cultured  students,  and  thoroughly  con- 
scientious physicians ;  of  such  and  of  such  only  should  be  the  membership  in 
the  suggested  College  of  Physicians  of  Boston. 


HENKY    P.   WALCOTT.  35 


President  Cheever:  It  is  a  good  omen  for  us  that  a  doctor  of  med- 
icine is  even  a  temporary  ruler  of  Harvard  University.  Medicine  and  our 
Medical  Library  are  well  represented  in  the  corporation.  But  in  the  acting 
president  we  have  a  conspicuous  example  of  sanitary,  professional  and  execu- 
tive ability. 

REMARKS  BY  HENRY  P.  WALCOTT,  M.D., 

Acting  President  of  Harvard  University. 

The  opening  of  a  library  devoted  to  the  general  purposes  of  literature, 
history  and  art  would  compel  the  representative  of  a  great  teaching  body  to 
say  something  about  the  appeal  which  such  collections  make  to  the  cultivated 
and  intelligent  members  of  the  community.  We  cannot,  however,  say  that 
this  collection  of  books  will  ever  appeal  to  us  in  the  higher  sense  in  which 
the  masters  of  literature  have  swayed  their  worlds. 

You  shall  find  no  author  here  who  has  made  a  figment  of  his  imagina- 
tion as  real  as  an  actual  personage  of  history. 

The  diseases  of  the  human  race,  and  I  may  add,  too,  those  of  the 
domesticated  animals,  have  an  interest  that  needs  no  play  of  the  imagination 
and  not  even  the  graces  of  style.  The  description,  however,  must  have  scien- 
tific accuracy,  and  that  implies  competent  authority. 

We  read  in  vain  the  matchless  pages  of  Thucydides  to  discover  the 
real  nature  of  the  plague  at  Athens ;  the  great  historian  could  not  adequately 
describe  a  disease  which  he  not  only  saw,  but  from  which  he  had  himself 
suffered.  Our  pious  ancestors  resolved  that  "  good  learning  should  not  perish 
from  among  us,"  and  so  founded  the  schools  at  Cambridge.  The  first  sub- 
stantial help  was  given  by  John  Harvard,  but  little  less  precious  than  his  be- 
quest in  money  was  the  legacy  of  his  books.  It  is  well,  then,  that  we 
should  here  cherish  books,  and  it  may  be  interesting  to  consider  for  a  mo- 
ment how  Harvard  College  has  used  its  libraries. 


36  REMARKS. 

Ill  my  own  college  clays  the  librarians  were  little  more  than  watch  dogs 
of  the  collections  under  their  charge.  Beyond  the  volumes  of  Reis's  Cyclo- 
piudia,  the  North  American  Review  and  some  of  the  English  quarterlies,  stu- 
dents were  rarely  allowed  access  to  the  actual  presence  of  the  books  ;  twice  a 
week  we  were  allowed  to  take  out  books  for  use  in  our  rooms.  The  result  was 
that  the  faithful  officers  turned  over  to  their  successors  the  unused  and  well 
preserved  contents  of  the  shelves.  A  generation  has  passed  away  and  I  can 
now  read  in  the  latest  report  of  the  college  librarian  this  statement : 

"  The  number  of  books  but  continues  to  increase  at  a  fairly  steady  rate. 
Borrowing  has  doubtless  been  encouraged  by  the  large  number  of  attractive 
books,  both  old  and  new,  that  are  constantly  kept  on  open  shelves  in  the 
delivery  room,  where  every  one  who  comes  into  the  library  is  tempted  to 
look  them  over." 

The  whole  number  of  students  in  Cambridge  is  3,151  ;  number  taking- 
books,  2,488.  The  collection  is  open  both  daytime  and  evening  through  the 
week  and  also  on  the  afternoon  of  Sunday.  The  University  Library  is  credited 
with  the  possession  of  548,000  books ;  of  these,  however,  only  379,000  are  de- 
posited in  the  general  collection  in  Grove  Hall.  The  rest  are  in  the  various 
departments  and  laboratory  libraries ;  the  Law  School  has  50,000  volumes ; 
the  Museum  of  Zoology,  34,000;  the  Divinity  School,  30,000;  the  Astro- 
nomical Observatory,  9,000 ;  the  Gray  Herbarium,  7,500,  and  last,  and  in  this 
case  least,  the  Medical  School  is  said  to  have  2,240. 

Beyond  this  system  of  department  libraries  there  is  another  and  more 
extensive  system  of  laboratory  and  classroom  libraries,  twenty-four  in  number, 
varying  in  size  from  the  Library  of  History,  Political  Economy  and  Sociology 
of  4,500  volumes,  down  to  the  Preachers'  Library  in  Wadsworth  House  of  less 
than  100  volume?. 

In  this  enumeration,  the  striking  fact  is  the  absolute  poverty  of  the  Medi- 
cal Library  as  compared  with  the  collection  with  which  a  comparison  may  be 
justly  sought  —  the  Zoological  Library  built  up  under  the  fostering  care  of  its 
great  and  generous  curator ;  a  working  library  only,  which  is  annually  turn- 
ing back  into  the  great  receptacle  in  Grove  Hall  such  books  as  have  become 
of  historical  interest  only. 


HENRY   P.    WALCOTT.  37 

The  explanation  of  this  seeming  lack  of  care  on  the  part  of  the  univer- 
sity for  her  Medical  School,  in  which  she  takes  a  just  pride,  is  undoubtedly  to 
be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  resources  of  this  library  have  been  most  freely 
given  to  the  teachers  and  students  of  the  school.  The  authorities  of  the  uni- 
versity may  well  consider  whether  some  equitable  arrangement  may  not  be 
possible  for  giving  to  the  library  an  equivalent  for  the  valuable  and  necessary 
assistance  so  freely  and  generously  bestowed. 


LETTER. 


President  Cheever  :  We  had  hoped  to  have  with  us  tonight  the 
Holmes  of  Phihrdelphia,  himself  both  a  lover  and  an  author  of  books,  a  valued 
contributor  to  medical  and  to  general  literature,  a  master  of  style  in  prose  and 
in  verse.     I  ask  Dr.  Chadwick  to  read  a  letter  from  Dr.  S.  Weir  Mitchell. 

LETTER  FROM  S.  WEIR  MITCHELL,  M.D.,  LL.D. 

Philadelphia,  December  29,  1900. 

Nothing,  my  dear  Chadwick,  except  engagements,  not  to  be  broken, 
keeps  me  from  being  among  those  who  in  person  congratulate  the  pro- 
fession on  the  opening  of  your  new  library.  To  you  more  than  to  any  other 
I  send  my  gratulations,  for  to  this  end  you  have  given  costly  days  out  of  a 
busy  life. 

I  see  as  I  grow  old,  or  may  I  say  older,  how  few  are  the  young  medical 
men  whose  tastes  are  scholarly,  and  who,  like  Holmes  and  our  own  lamented 
Da  Costa,  are  familiar  with  the  fathers  and  find  pleasure  in  the  old  books  — 
the  quaint  books,  the  sense  and  the  vagaries  of  the  past.  Without  a  great 
library  few  can  afford  these  intellectual  playgrounds,  or,  indeed,  acquire  the 
material  for  such  indulgence. 

May  your  new  building  and  growing  wealth  of  books  tempt  many  into 
paths  where  some  of  us  have  found  unlocked  for  treasuries  of  interest  and 
even  of  practical  value ;  for  indeed  the  dying  century  did  not  invent  com- 
mon sense,  and  genius  is  of  every  age. 

I  often  remember  with  regret  the  great  waste  of  time  in  my  younger 
days  when  there  were  no  great  libraries,  and  when  John  Billings  had  not 
indexed  the  medical  thought  of  all  the  centuries.     The  enormous  labor  then 


S.    WEIR    MITCHELL.  39 

involved  in  any  mere  literary  research  as  to  facts  no  one  can  imagine 
today.  A  great  library  of  medicine  is  truly  a  labor-saving  machine,  and  over 
your  library  and  over  its  new  home  you  should  rejoice  because  a  great 
library,  well  managed,  practically  lengthens  life  by  saving  time. 

My  thin  thread  of  New  England  blood  seems  to  be  tingling  with  friendly 
pride  as  I  reflect  on  what  the  profession  has  here  accomplished.  I  send 
you  my  greeting  from  the  city  I  love  best  to  that  I  love  next  best,  and  wish 
you  all,  and  the  newly  ^instituted  library,  long,  useful  and  honored  days. 

As  I  pause  to  assure  you  how  truly  I  am  yours  I  am  conscious  that 
I  really  hate  more  and  better  things  to  say ;  but  as  like  as  not  others  will 
have  said  them,  and  I  leave  therefore  to  the  eloquence  of  suggestive  imagi- 
nation all  the  fine  things  which  I  am  tempted  to  say  and  will  not. 

Believe  me,  my  dear  Chadwick,  always  and  in  all  ways, 

Your  friend, 

S.  Weir  Mitchell. 


EDITORIAL. 


THE   BOSTON   MEDICAL   LTBRARY.i 

The  formal  opening  of  the  new  building  of  the  Boston  Medical  Libran^ 
which  took  place  Saturday  evening,  January  12th,  was  an  event  the  full  sig- 
nificance of  which  we  are  as  yet  not  fully  able  to  appreciate.  Boston  has  for 
many  years  struggled  to  maintain  a  creditable  library  in  a  building  which  had 
become  wholly  inadequate  and  in  a  situation  whose  character  had  so  changed 
as  to  justify  its  being  not  inaptly  described  by  one  of  the  speakers  of  the 
evening  as  a  "  diverticulum  of  hidden  dangers,  a  Bohemian  midway  pleasance." 
To  be  suddenly  transferred  from  this  unfortunate  position  to  its  present  loca- 
tion on  one  of  the  city's  most  attractive  streets,  commanding  a  view  of  excep- 
tional beauty,  is  a  transformation  which  the  most  sanguine  believer  in  the 
fitness  of  things  could  contemplate  only  with  satisfaction  tempered  by  sur- 
prise. How  this  was  accomplished  was  told  in  detail  at  the  exercises  attend- 
ing the  opening  of  the  new  building,  the  full  report  of  which  is  given  in  other 
columns  of  this  issue.  We  will  only  emphasize  here  the  good  fortune  of  the 
building  committee  in  being  able  to  command  the  devoted  services  of  a  medi- 
cal colleague,  Dr.  Farrar  Cobb,  with  large  experience  in  the  details  of  the 
construction  of  buildings  for  medical  institutions ;  he,  in  great  measure, 
wrought  the  miracle  of  providing  an  architectural  product  at  less  than  esti 
mated  cost. 

As  was  to  be  expected,  the  attendance  at  these  exercises  was  large  and 
representative ;  it  is  perhaps  more  worthy  of  comment  that  the  various! 
addresses  and  remarks  made  by  the  chosen  speakers  were  most  admirably 
suited  to  the  occasion,  and  did  not  once  lapse  into  the  commonplace.     They 

•  Editorial  from  the  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal,  January  17,  1901. 


i 


BOSTON  MEDICAL   AND   SURGICAL   JOURNAL.  41 

were  throughout  dignified,  at  times  humorous,  but  never  tiresome.  Dr. 
Wood,  of  Philadelphia,  was  the  only  absentee,  but  we  have  fortunately  not 
thereby  lost  his  address.  The  exercises  were  held  in  the  large  upper  hall,  as 
yet  unfinished ;  its  bare  walls  and  girders  were  a  mute  but  eloquent  appeal  to 
the  assembled  audience  to  provide  at  no  distant  time  for  the  proper  adorn- 
ment of  this  important  room,  for  which  the  modest  sum  of  $5,000  is  required. 

In  striking  contrast  to  this  commodious  but  as  yet  incomplete  hall  is  the 
main  reading  room,  whiah  is  to  be  known  as  Holmes  Hall,  in  honor  of  the 
steadfast  friend  and  first  president  of  the  library.  No  doubt  many  deserve 
the  credit  for  this  room,  but  to  whomsoever  credit  is  due,  there  can  be  no 
question  that  it  is  a  success  from  every  point  of  view.  Dr.  Holmes  is  evi- 
dently the  presiding  genius,  for  his  portrait  looks  down  from  one  end  and  his 
bust  from  the  other,  while  everywhere  are  further  reminders  of  Boston's 
literary  doctor  —  many  of  them  due  to  the  fostering  foresight  of  Dr.  Chad- 
wi<,*k.  It  was  hard  to  believe  that  this  room  had  not  been  in  use  for  years,  so 
assiduously  had  its  shelves  been  filled  with  books,  and  its  various  decorations 
completed.  The  recently  acquired  collection  of  medical  medals  presented  by 
Dr.  Storer  will  when  finally  in  place  afford  a  unique  object  of  interest  to 
Holmes  Hall. 

The  skilful  arrangement  of  the  smaller  rooms  to  be  used  for  various  pur- 
poses connected  with  the  library  —  among  them  Sprague  Hall,  for  the  smaller 
meetings  of  medical  societies  —  reflects  equal  credit  upon  the  designers  of  the 
building.  It  is,  in  fact,  hard  to  see  how  the  most  ambitious  among  us  could 
demand  a  more  elaborate  and  complete  receptacle  for  our  books  and  medical 
treasures  of  all  sorts,  or  a  more  satisfactory  literary  workshop.  Even  Dr. 
Billings,  who  knows  whereof  he  speaks,  comforted  us  with  the  assurance  that 
we  "  may  rest  satisfied  for  several  weeks  to  come." 

True  as  all  this  is,  and  justifiable  as  are  self-congratulations  at  this  time 
on  what  has  been  so  successfully  accomplished,  the  fact  must  not  for  a  moment 
be  lost  sight  of  that  much  more  remains  to  be  done ;  that  with  new  privileges 
come  new  responsibilities  of  a  ver}'  definite  sort.  The  library  must  be  sup- 
ported as  never  before ;  it  must  continually  have  new  books,  and  widen  its 
scope  of  usefulness  in  every  possible  direction.     To  this  end  a  renewed  inter- 


42  EDITORIAL. 

est  must  ho  taken  in  its  affairs  by  every  one,  whether  remotely  or  intimately 
connected  with  it.  an  interest  which,  no  donbt,  the  new  building  will  do  much 
to  stimulate. 

A  sug-gestion  in  this  line  was  made  both  by  Dr.  Wood,  speaking  for  the 
College  of  Physicians  of  Philadelphia,  and  by  Dr.  Chadwick,  Librarian  of  the 
Boston  Library.  Both  of  these  gentlemen  urged  the  desirability  of  widening 
the  scope  of  the  library  with  the  view  of  establishing  ultimately  an  association 
of  physicians,  whose  voice  would  have  weight  in  other  matters  than  those  per- 
taining merely  to  books.  This  means  a  very  distinct  expansion  over  the 
organization  which  at  present  exists.  Dr.  Chadwick  urged  that  the  library 
henceforth  invite  men  working  in  allied  fields  to  form  a  part  of  the  proposed 
larger  association,  which  then  might  jjroperly  assume  the  name  and  the  obliga- 
tions of  an  academy.  The  library  should  thereby  become  the  real  centre  of 
the  medical  activity  of  the  entire  State,  or  we  might  go  still  further  and  say, 
of  New  England.  It  is  clear,  as  Dr.  Chadwick  said,  that  the  subject  is  a 
large  one,  demanding  careful  consideration  and  active  enthusiasm  before  such 
a  general  plan  may  become  an  accomplished  fact.  In  the  meantime  it  be- 
hooves us  to  recognize  our  new  responsibilities  and  by  all  ways  in  our  power 
to  enhance  the  usefulness  of  the  library  merely  as  a  library,  and  also  by 
broadening  the  present  organization  lay  at  least  the  foundation  of  an  institu- 
tion which  shall  represent  the  widest  medical  interests.  We  are  confident 
that  such  a  consummation  is  both  possible  and  desirable. 


Basement  Plan 


First  Floor  Plar. 


5C/Mt    OF     FEET 

0  12   4   6   a  K)  i;  tt  ifc 

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Second  Floor  Plan 


Third  Floor  Plan 

SCALE    OF    FrET 

012    A.     b     8    10    12    14   It 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA      000  338  389    o 


